


We do not need magic to change the world

by magicsophicorn



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 03:25:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3675618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicsophicorn/pseuds/magicsophicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.-- JK Rowling</p><p>Regina meets the Author. <s>Who is probably not JK Rowling?</s></p>
            </blockquote>





	We do not need magic to change the world

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions past Hood. No mention of Hook because, well, he didn't even cross my mind tbh.
> 
> I know everyone and their mum has written a variation on this theme already, but I was given that quote as a prompt and how could I not? I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.

Regina hated showing weakness. She had her mother to thank for that. In the past she’d replaced all her sadness and pain with anger and wrath. She couldn’t do that anymore. Not since Henry. Which left her no choice but to feel the pain.

Robin had chosen Marian and they had left Storybrooke.

She hadn’t really known him that long, but it still hurt. He was supposed to be her soulmate, her happy ending. She should have known that that was not something that she could have. No matter what Pixie Dust said.

Regina felt someone approach from behind her. She didn’t even need to raise her head from where it rested in her hand to know that it was Emma.

“I’m not in the mood for a hope speech Emma,” she sighed.

“You’re mistaking me for my mother. Besides, you don’t need a speech you need a drinking buddy. Shots?”

Regina finally turned to look Emma. That actually did sound like just what she needed right about now. How did Emma always seem to know what that was lately?

“Sure, why not?”

As they waited for their shots to arrive Emma couldn’t seem to help herself.

“You know you did the right thing today,” she said, not quite looking at Regina.

“And there it is, a hope speech. I thought we were drinking?”

“It’s not a speech, it’s a compliment.” Emma huffed, sounding a little bit frustrated.

“I don’t need your validation,” Regina said. It was true, she didn’t need it. But she did like it. It warmed her almost as much as whenever Henry believed in her. She would never admit that to Emma though.

“I know I did the right thing. I know because I’m miserable. Again.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, so is Gold,” Emma said as their shots arrived, raising hers for a toast.

Regina thought about it for a moment.

“It does.”

They clinked their glasses and downed their shots.

Then a couple more. Then a couple more after that.

After, well, Regina didn’t know how many shots they’d had, they were both a giggling mess. Regina had been drunk before of course, but never like this. Never with a friend. With someone who was silly and funny and said and did things just because they knew it would make Regina laugh.

Emma threw her arm around Regina’s shoulders with a deep dramatic sigh, sloshing some of her beer (which she’d switched too after claiming it would negate the shot hangover) over the side of her glass.

“Jus' wan' you to be happy, R’gina,” she slurred, “You deserve it.”

Regina doubted that. But it was nice that Emma thought so.

“Go home, you’re drunk.” Regina said, trying not to giggle at the dopey face Emma was pulling as she attempted to look sincere through a fog of alcohol.

“So’re you!” Emma cried indignantly, but she did stand and fish her phone out of her pocket. “Should probably call Dad, David, Daviddad, and ask him to give me a lift home.” She looked around the diner conspiratorially before leaning in close to Regina and stage whispering, “cos' I’m pretty wasted. Shhh!”

Regina couldn’t help but giggle then.

“Don’t laugh at me! Or I won’t ask David to give you a lift home too.” Emma pouted.

Regina covered her mouth with her hand and tried to stop laughing. Emma turned away and dialled and Regina chuckled a bit more to herself.

Emma was funny. Emma was very kind. This evening had been just what she had needed. She hadn’t thought about Robin once. Well, until now. Although if she was honest with herself, she was more upset about losing her happy ending than about losing Robin himself. She pushed the thought away as Emma returned to her side.

“He said he’ll be here in five minutes but we have to promise not to vomit in the pickup truck.”

Regina tried to pull a face of haughty disdain, but judging by Emma’s guffaw it probably looked more like constipation.

“I have that struggle every time I’m near your father, the truck has nothing to do with it,” she said, proud of coming up with something so witty despite the alcohol clouding her brain.

Emma threw back her head and laughed.

“Hey at least it’s not both my parents coming. They’d probably kiss and then we’d both be fighting not to vom...”

\-------------------

Emma fidgeted nervously and Regina felt a mild flare of annoyance. What did she have to be nervous about? It wasn't her happy ending on the line here.

"Are you sure about this, Regina?" Emma asked softly.

Regina slammed the vials she was holding down on to the table, a little harder than she had been intending.

"Miss Swan you promised to help me find my happy ending, or have you changed your mind and decided that villains don't deserve a happy ending after all?"

She glanced over at Emma and immediately regretted her words. Emma had that 'kicked puppy' look on her face that always had Regina's insides twisting with guilt whenever she had been the one responsible for causing it (although that happened less and less these days, Regina had been making sure of it).

"You're not a villain anymore Regina," Emma said, her voice even softer than before, "and I still intend to do everything I can to help you find your happy ending. It's just…"

She sighed, pushing her hair back from her face, and Regina wondered what on earth she was about to say.

"I just don't like the thought of magic, or fate, or whatever, deciding what your happy ending is. It just seems so… unfair. What about freewill? Shouldn't you have a choice in how your life turns out?"

A choice.

It felt like a foreign concept to Regina. She had had no choice in her marriage to the king, and drowning in her pain and anger she had felt like she had no choice but to cast the curse. It was only after the arrival of Emma in town that she had been able to choose to be better, for Henry. For herself. But then when Robin ended up back in her life after she had run away from him all those years ago she had once again felt like she had no choice but to follow the path that pixie dust had laid out for her. But look at how that had worked out. Funny how the only things she had chosen for herself, Henry and the path of redemption, were the only things that had made her life better, that made her happy.

"I just want to be happy," she eventually whispered, her throat tight, because what else could she say?

"I know. And you can be, Regina. I have hope that you can be."

Regina swallowed round the lump in her throat and straightened her back. She could think about this later. Right now she had magic to do.

Breathing deeply, Regina poured she small vial of pixie dust into the potion she had made, before flinging the mixture out into the air in front of her.

Regina held her breath and waited, expecting a glowing trail to appear, like last time. Instead the glowing mixture hovered around her like a cloud of smoke. Regina coughed as she inhaled some of the glittering dust and briefly caught the scent of Henry and Emma and Granny's Diner. Then as quickly as it had come the dust faded and disappeared.

Regina hurled the empty vial across the room in frustration and heard it shatter. Why hadn't that worked? It was supposed to lead her to her happy ending, like when Tinkerbell had done it all those years ago.

A hand on her arm snapped Regina out of her thoughts. She hadn’t heard Emma approach.

“Don’t worry, maybe it just didn’t work because Robin is past the town line where magic can't reach,” Emma said, stroking Regina’s arm softly with her thumb. “Why don’t we go and meet Henry at Granny’s for something to eat?”

Regina nodded. Seeing Henry would make her feel better. Seeing Henry always made her feel better.

\------------------

Regina struggled to hold back her tears as she looked around the empty room. They were so close, but somehow her happy ending was still just out of reach.

Henry had found the author’s house, and the secret room, but there was still no sign of the author. No sign of a happy ending for her in any of the books on the shelves that covered the room from floor to ceiling.

She just wanted to be happy. She wanted someone to choose her. She wanted to love and be loved in return.

Why couldn’t she have that?

There was a soft rustle of leather as someone sat down on the floor beside her. As always she didn’t need to look up to know who it was.

“Thought I might find you here,” Emma said, “You okay?”

Usually she would have brushed the blonde off with a clipped _“I’m fine, Miss Swan,”_ but she found she couldn’t. Not anymore.

“Perhaps I should just give up,” she sighed, “clearly I’m not supposed to find a happy ending.”

Emma nudged the side of Regina’s legs with her knees.

“Don’t say that. That’s not true. I promised to help you find your happy ending, and I always keep my promises. So you know, you’re not getting off that easily. You’re getting a happy ending whether you like it or not.”

Regina looked up at Emma who smiled, and despite everything within her telling her not to, she believed her. She believed her not because she was the saviour, but because she was Emma. Because Emma didn’t lie to make her feel better. Because Emma really did keep her promises.

“Why don’t we go pick Henry up from school and go to the arcade? I might even let you beat me for a change,” Emma said.

Regina couldn’t fight the smile that tugged at her lips, but she felt she needed a little longer to herself before she could enjoy such an outing as much as it deserved.

“I think I might stay here just a little bit longer. I’ll call you when I leave.”

“Sure, we’ll see you later then,” Emma said as she pushed herself up to her feet.

“Just don’t mope for too long, or I might decide we need to do shots again,” she said with a grin.

“Please, I’m a Queen. I do not mope.”

Emma chuckled to herself as she walked towards the door.

“Emma,” Regina called out, just as Emma was about to leave, “Thank you. For everything.”

Emma’s smile was radiant as she replied, “Anytime Regina. Anytime.”

\------------

As she opened her eyes Regina realised it was dark outside. She must have fallen asleep in the Author’s house.

She pushed herself to her feet, wincing at how sore her muscles felt after sleeping sitting on the floor for several hours.

Pulling her phone out of her bag, Regina used the light to navigate herself out of the room and in to the hallway in the dark.

Only when she opened the door the lights in the hallway were on.

Regina froze. Surely Emma or Henry couldn’t be here, they would have woken her, or at least made her more comfortable. Why else would the lights be on though?

She crept down the hallway, trying to make as little noise as possible, which was difficult in heels. When she reached the entrance hall she realised that the lights were also on in a little study off to the right. Regina readied herself to conjure a fireball, pushed open the study door and entered the room.

Sitting at the desk, writing in a notebook with a quill, was a middle aged blonde woman. She looked up as Regina entered and smiled.

“Hello Regina, I’m pleased to finally meet you,” she said.

“How do you know my name?” Regina demanded, her fingers twitching to create a fireball.

The woman leant back in to her chair.

“How do you think?” she asked.

“You’re the Author.”

The woman nodded.

Regina wasn’t sure what she had been expecting the Author to be like, but it wasn’t this. The woman looked so normal, and her eyes were soft and kind. Although Regina knew better than anyone not to trust such things.

“I’ve been looking for you. I want you to write me a happy ending, please.”

The Author stood and walked round to the front of the desk, leaning on it slightly.

“I’m sorry Regina, but I can’t do that for you,” she said. She really did look apologetic but Regina felt her gut twist in fury.

“You can’t or you won’t?” she growled.

“I can’t. I don’t write the future. Only what’s already happened. Surely you noticed that the Book only has the past in it?”

She had noticed, but had hoped anyway.

“Then why did you leave out my side of the story? The Book painted me as a villain without ever showing why I became that way.”

The Author stepped up to her and cupped her chin in her palm, brushing her thumb softly over Regina’s cheek.

“Because that story is yours, and yours alone, to tell my dear.”

Regina didn't know what to think. This wasn't how she imagined this meeting at all. If the author couldn't write her a happy ending then everything had been for nothing.

"I don't understand," Regina sighed, "if pixie dust can't show me my happy ending, and you can't write me one, then how am I ever supposed to find it?"

The author stepped back and leant on the desk again, she smiled the way a parent smiles at their child as they explain something new to them.

"Why, the same way as everyone else, Regina."

"And what way is that?" Regina heard the pleading tone in her voice but didn't even feel embarrassed. She was past that now.

The author walked back round the desk and sat once again in her chair, that same motherly smile on her face, before responding.

"We do not need magic to change the world, Regina. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better."

That wasn't an answer. At least not one that Regina understood. She felt frustrated. She opened her mouth to question the Author further, but the author spoke first.

"Go home Regina. Your family are waiting for you."

She smiled a half smile at Regina and raised one eyebrow, as though she thought she was still imparting some great wisdom, but Regina wasn't sure she understood what it was. (Except for her traitorous heart, whispering that it did, that her beautiful little family, which she didn't deserve but tried so hard to, were all she had ever needed to be happy for the rest of her life. But it couldn't be that. It couldn't be that easy, that good, could it?)

Not knowing what to say, Regina turned and left, heading back to Mifflin Street.

\--------------------

Regina wasn't surprised to find lights on at the house when she arrived. She also wasn't surprised by the sounds of laughter she heard coming from the living room as she opened the front door and let herself into the house.

She walked as quietly as possible to the living room and leant against the doorframe. She wanted to watch for a moment.

Emma and Henry were both sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the television, they were playing a fighting game, Mortal Combat probably, and Emma was losing badly. As usual. She had resorted to her usual tactic of cheating and every so often would reach across Henry and push his controller in the opposite direction, or she would reach across and clamp one hand over his eyes.

And in that moment, watching the two people she cared more for than any others, Regina gave in to her heart, and accepted what it had been telling her for years now. That this was it, this was home. This was her family. This was what she wanted. This was her happily ever after. She hadn't allowed herself to accept it before. There was pixie dust and destinies and soulmates and Authors, and she hadn't thought that she would be able to have this. But she could. She could choose. And she would always, always, choose this. Choose them.

"Maaaaa!" Henry whined, "you are such a cheater!"

"And you should respect your elders and let me win sometimes," Emma chuckled, bashing the buttons on Henry's controller for good measure.

"But you never let Mom win when we go to the arcade, and she's definitely your elder."

"That's different Kid, she's the only person I can actually beat, I'm not giving that up. And please do not ever call her my elder again. I really do not want to think about that."

Henry snorted.

"Please, we both know it's because you're trying to impress her, and you like the way she sasses you when she loses."

Emma sighed, but there was a fond smile on her face, and she put her controller on the floor.

"Yeah, there is that."

She pushed herself up off the floor and in doing so noticed Regina standing in the doorway.

"Regina! Hi! Uh, how long have you been stood there?"

Regina smirked at the look of pure panic flashing across Emma's face as she clearly tried to remember exactly what she had just said that Regina might have heard. Henry was trying not to laugh.

"I just got back," Regina said, taking pity on the blonde, "sorry I missed the arcade, I lost track of time at the Author's house. Did you two have fun?"

"Yeah," Henry said with a grin, "I beat Emma at Pacman again."

Emma folded her arms across her chest.

"If I could be Mrs Pacman I would kick your butt. I just can't get into the mindset of Pacman," Emma huffed.

"Okay, sure, you keep telling yourself that," Henry chuckled, "did you find out anything new at the Author's house Mom?"

Regina sat down on the couch and took a deep breath. This was it.

"Actually I did, Henry, I met the Author."

"What?!?" both Emma and Henry cried in unison, their mouths wide open in identical looks of shock. They both rushed over to the couch and sat on either side of her, leaning towards her eagerly.

"What happened?" Henry asked at the same time as Emma said "What did he say?"

"She, actually, and she said that she can't write me a happy ending because she only writes about what's already happened, she doesn't write the future."

Emma placed a hand softly on her knee, her face so full of concern as she asked, "So what does that mean for your happy ending, did she say?"

Regina placed her hand over Emma's.

"Well she was frustratingly cryptic, but I believe what she was trying to tell me was that you were right, Emma."

"I was? Well that doesn't happen often. What was I right about?" Emma smirked and Regina was pleased that she didn't try to removed her hand from under hers.

"Believe me I was shocked too. It turns out that you were correct that I should in fact be free to choose my own happy ending."

Emma pulled her hand away then and looked down at her lap.

"That's fantastic news Regina, and you know I'm still here for you to help in any way I can."

Regina frowned. Emma didn't look like she thought it was fantastic news. In fact she looked downright miserable. Did she think that Regina wouldn't choose her? Did she not realise that she had already chosen her a long time ago?

"Throughout my life I've never felt like I had much choice in the things that have happened to me, and so I've learned not to pursue the things that I really want, as I thought that I couldn't, or shouldn't, have them."

Regina sighed. She found it so hard to open herself up and be vulnerable, but she knew she had to.

Emma was looking at her now, and Regina tried to squash the doubts and the fears that maybe Emma didn't feel the same way she did.

She felt Henry put his hand on her shoulder and she turned her head to look at him. He smiled and nodded at her, his eyes telling her he understood already what she was trying to say, and that it was the right thing to say. She smiled back, tears starting to fill her eyes.

"But thanks to the two of you I have learned to love again, I've learned to be loved, I've learned that I am worthy of love, and so much more. I can never thank the two of you enough for all of these things."

Regina felt the tears starting to fall but she had to carry on, she had to say the most important part.

"And if I were able to choose my happily ever after, I would choose you. Both of you. Always. I love you both so much."

Both Henry and Emma immediately threw their arms around Regina, enveloping her in a hug from either side.

"I love you so much, Mom, so very much," Henry whispered, and she could hear the waver in his voice that told her he was crying as well.

"I should let you two talk, I'll be up in my room," he said as he stood quickly and wiped his eyes.

Only after he had left the room did Regina feel brave enough to look at Emma. She too had wet tear stains down her face, but was looking at Regina with something like awe.

"I always hoped that one day you would want me," Emma whispered, "but I didn't want to push you."

"Oh Emma," Regina breathed, her hand reaching up to cup Emma's cheek, "I have wanted you from the moment I laid eyes on you. I just never thought that I could even be allowed to want you, let alone that I could ever have you, or that you would ever want me too."

Emma leaned in close to her, leaving mere millimetres between their lips. Regina closed the gap and pressed her lips softly to Emma's. The kiss was love and home and longing and everything Regina had never allowed herself to hope for before.

Their lips parted and Regina rested her forehead on Emma's.

"Thank you, Emma," she whispered.

"I know I'm a good kisser, but you don't need to thank me every time," Emma chuckled and Regina felt the breath of it on her lips.

"I think I need more evidence before I can make any comment on your kissing sills," Regina said, her eyebrow raised in her trademark smirk.

"Oh really? Is that so?"

"Yes, I…" But Regina never got to finish that sentence as Emma was kissing her again, her tongue sliding out over Regina's bottom lip. Where their first kiss had been soft and tender, their second was fire and passion.

"Have you guys finished making out yet?" Henry yelled from the stairs.

The women pulled apart, their chests heaving. They glanced at each other and couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah kid, it's safe, you can come back in," Emma yelled, a goofy grin on her face.

Henry bounded into the room, a similar grin on his face as well.

"We're going to have to make some rules about the whole making out thing," Henry said as he flopped back down on to the couch, "because whilst I am very happy that you guys are in love, that is not something I need to see. Ever."

"I can't make any promises kid," Emma said, grinning smugly, "firstly because we're going to want to do that a lot, and secondly because traumatising you is not only my prerogative as your parent, but also my life's goal."

Henry groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"I've changed my mind," he mumbled, "I want you both to be miserable and separate, like, at least five feet between you both at all times."

Regina chuckled. She hoped the Author could see them somehow. She thought she might be proud of her, because to Regina, this looked an awful lot like happily ever after.


End file.
